Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that two major terrorist outfits active in Pakistan are Indian proxies. He declared that Islamabad will soon share concrete evidence proving India’s hand in the recent attack on a school bus in Khuzdar, Balochistan.
The blast claimed six lives, including three children. Over 40 others, mostly school students, were injured when a bomb exploded near Zero Point on the Quetta-Karachi highway. The students were heading to the Army Public School in Khuzdar Cantonment when the explosion took place.
Officials confirmed that at least 15 of the injured were girl students. Around a dozen students remain in critical condition. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir visited the wounded at a hospital in Quetta on Wednesday.
Speaking to a private television channel, Khawaja Asif said the proscribed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is functioning as a proxy for India. He stated that “we have solid proof and we will share it publicly.” He emphasized that Pakistan will back all its claims with strong documentation.
He further explained that the link between the BLA and India is well-known. According to him, BLA leaders are based in New Delhi and are working like agents of India. He compared this situation to the Pahalgam incident in Indian-occupied Kashmir last month. In that attack, 26 people died, and India blamed Pakistan without offering any evidence.
Asif also included the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in his accusation. He said both BLA and TTP are instruments of Indian state terrorism. He stressed that these groups have no connection to religion or any real nationalist cause. “India funds them to spread bloodshed in Pakistan,” he said.
When asked how Pakistan would respond, the Defence Minister said, “We will retaliate with full force. There will be no mercy for those who target civilians and children.”
Asif said that Pakistan had demanded an international probe into the Pahalgam attack. However, India rejected the proposal. He accused the Modi-led government of being “highly irresponsible” for using a fake narrative to justify nuclear threats.
He made it clear that Pakistan does not seek nuclear conflict. But he warned that the country will not remain silent if nuclear weapons are used against it. “We acted with restraint,” Asif said, “but India still carried out nighttime attacks on our bases.”
Meanwhile, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), also issued a strong statement. The ISPR said that Indian terror proxies are being used by the Indian state to carry out attacks in Pakistan. It condemned the targeting of soft civilian targets like school children.
The ISPR stated that India failed against Pakistan’s recent Operation Bunyanum Marsoos. It added that these Indian-backed militants are being hunted down by security forces.
It called India’s use of proxy warfare as state policy “abhorrent” and said it showed a complete lack of moral values and basic human decency. The army promised that the attackers and their planners will be caught. “India’s ugly face will be shown to the world,” the ISPR said.
On Monday, the army confirmed the killing of 12 terrorists in operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. These militants belonged to groups labeled as Indian agents.
Last month, ISPR Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said India is reactivating its assets to escalate violence in Pakistan. He revealed that a captured terrorist trained by India was proof of this state-sponsored terror campaign.
